"Atheism is not merely the denial of a dogma. It is the reversal of a subconscious assumption in the soul..." - Chesterton
"We do not really face two rival versions of Christianity. We face Christianity on the one hand and, on the other hand, some other religion that selectively uses Christian words, but is not Christianity." - J. Gresham Machen

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What I believe:
I believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.
I believe he was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
I believe he suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
I believe he descended to the grave and on the third day he rose again.
I believe he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
I believe he will come again to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting.
I believe we are saved by grace alone through faith alone. I believe the Bible is the word of God, without error or contradiction.
I believe God is sovereign over all the universe; omnipotent and omniscient in all things. I believe that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. I believe that pretty much covers it.

Tuesday, 6 December 2011

Arguing With Atheists (2)

On our recent trip to Vegas we stopped in Salt Lake City to see the Mormon Temple Square. It was quite spectacular, to say the least.

But when visitors enter the information centre, they are greeted by a team of two "missionaries" who volunteer to answer any questions, with the end in mind, I supose, to lead one toward the Mormon faith. My "team" were a couple of young girls from the Philipines, so there was a bit of a language barrier. I told them I was what I would call a born again Christian. I didn't just say I was a Christian, because they consider themselves to be Christians as well, hence my differentiation.

Our discussion somehow turned to the nature of God, and I was told that God had flesh and bones, just like we do. I asked where did he come from, who created him, but I think the language barrier made difficult to discuss in any depth. They just kept coming back to the point that the god who created everything was a man just like us. I told them it made no sense and left it there.

I say all that to say this: there is a blog called Darwin Killed God by an atheist who has commented on posts in this blog. And in their discussion and defence of evolution, atheists face the same problem as the Mormons -- they start in the middle. They start with, "stuff" already in existence. As for Mormons, if the creator of stuff is already made of stuff, then he is not the original creator of stuff, is he?

Frankly, I avoid as much as possible discussing evolution with atheists. There is no point in duscussing evolution until one settles the problem of origins. There is no point discussing the origin of species until one settles on the origin of everything. And if one begins with the premise of a Crteaor God, Darwinian evolution becomes, at the very least, unnecessary.